Highest Fukushima pollution ever

Highest level of radioactive cesium to date found in freshwater fish in Fukushima village

IITATE, Fukushima — Radioactive cesium far exceeding the allowable limit and way higher than previously detected contamination levels in fish has been found in river trout here, the prefectural government said on March 28.

The yamame, or landlocked masu salmon, caught in the Niida River in Iitate, Fukushima Prefecture, measured 18,700 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram, a reading over 37 times more than the government-imposed provisional limit of 500 becquerels per kilogram.

The prefectural government has requested related fishery cooperatives to refrain from catching and eating yamame fish from the Niida River’s main current and tributaries.

The contaminated fish was caught for sampling prior to the opening of the fishing season in April this year and has not been circulated in markets.

March 30, 2012

ScienceDaily (Apr. 2, 2012) — An international research team is reporting the results of a research cruise they organized to study the amount, spread, and impacts of radiation released into the ocean from the tsunami-crippled reactors in Fukushima, Japan. The group of 17 researchers and technicians from eight institutions spent 15 days at sea in June 2011 studying ocean currents, and sampling water and marine organisms up to the edge of the exclusion zone around the reactors: here.

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One year after Japan’s nuclear disaster, the invisible threat of radiation still lurks around homes and businesses near the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant. Now, a new camera based on Japanese space technology has allowed humans to see the radioactive contamination around the nuclear plant’s emergency evacuation zone. Such camera technology works by detecting radioactive particles that give off gamma rays – the highest-energy form of light in the universe.

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) originally developed the technology for an upcoming X-ray observation satellite, called ASTRO-H, but successfully adapted the camera to spot Earthly radiation threats such as Cesium 137 and Cesium 134.

The camera’s wide 180-degree vision showed radioactive particles spread across the ground and on rooftops of the village in the Fukushima Prefecture during a field test Feb. 11. Its results proved more accurate and capable of capturing a broader snapshot of the radioactive zone than existing cameras.